1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle lamp constituting a light source by a light emitting element.
2. Related Art
In recent years, a light emitting element of a light emitting diode or the like has been frequently used.
For example, JP-A-2005-044683 describes a vehicle lamp including a lens arranged on an optical axis extending in a front and rear direction of a lamp, and a light emitting element arranged on a rear side of the lens, and constituted such that directly emitted light from the light emitting element is controlled to deflect by the lens to be illuminated to a front side of the lamp. Further, compact formation of the lamp can be achieved by adopting such a vehicle lamp.
The light emitting element of the vehicle lamp described in JP-A-2005-044683 is arranged to direct a light emitting chip thereof in a direction of a front face of the lamp and therefore, some portion of light emitted from the light emitting chip constitutes light emitted in a direction of an angle exceeding an opening angle of the lens and such light is generated over an entire periphery with regard to the optical axis.
However, such light is not controlled to deflect by the lens and therefore, the light cannot be effectively utilized as front illuminating light and therefore, there poses a problem that an efficiency of utilizing a light flux of a light source is reduced by that amount.